“RURAL MARKETING”

Executive Summary
A debate continued for a long time amongst the Indian marketers, both practitioners & academicians, on the justification for the existence of the distinct discipline of rural marketing. Consequently, two schools of thought emerged. The first school belived that the products/services, marketing tools & strategies that are successful in urban areas, could be transplanted with little or no more modifications in rural areas. However, the second school saw a clear distinction between urban & rural India, & suggested a different approach, skills, tools & strategies to be successful in rural markets.

What differentiates the two markets is not mere income, but a host of other infrastructural & socio-cultural factors. Thus, the rural market cannot be tapped successfully with an urban marketing mindset & would definitely require its thorough understanding. In other words, the approach toward rural markets needs to be distinct from the one adopted for the urban markets.

Thus, in a large rural economy like India’s, rural marketing has emerged as an important & distinct internal sub-division within the marketing discipline. This sub-division clearly highlights the differences between rural marketing & mainstream marketing.

Table of contents

1) Rural marketing 3 2) Evolution of rural marketing 4 3) Nature of rural market 8 4) Rural marketing transactional or developmental 9 5) Classification of rural consumers 11 6) Roadblocks of Indian Rural Markets 12 7) Attractiveness of rural market 14 8) Rural Vs Urban Marketing 19 9) Rural consumer behavior 22 10) 4 A’s approach of Indian Rural Market 25 11) Rural marketing Mix 28 12) Marketing strategies to capture rural market 37 1. Product